September 2013

It’s really nice that I met The Bungaloo at the Renegade Craft Fair back in 2011 because otherwise I don’t think our paths would have met and I wouldn’t have been aware of this lovely t-shirt, and it’s a tri-blend so you know it’s going to feel delightful.

San Diego band The Silent Comedy has parented with Sound Off Apparel to design t-shirts to benefit human trafficking prevention programs.

Available only until October 14th these shirts symbolize the The Silent Comedy and Sound Off Apparel’s join effort to open people’s eyes to the problem of human trafficking. The band chose this particular cause to benefit after spending time in Asia as children with missionary parents and seeing their friends who couldn’t afford an education being sucked into the human slave trade.

$8 from the sale of each shirt goes to benefiting the cause. Each month Sound Off Apparel features a new band/cause collaboration. For more information go to www.soundoffapparel.org

I’m surprised that it has taken this long for someone to release a Stillwater shirt, considering it’s been more than a decade since Almost Famous was in the cinemas, but I guess it’s better late than never. Also cool to see the Shiva tee since The League is one of my favourite shows at the moment. The rest of them are pretty cool tee even though I must admit that I don’t understand all the references.

BustedTees (HYA readers will have a 20% off coupon code applied to their cart automatically by using this link)

I’m sure I’m not the only one looking at the three new designs above from Snorg and thinking that these probably won’t become all-time best sellers in their catalogue. Still, if you’re of a different opinion to me (which is okay, I won’t be mad) then you can pick the shirts up for $14.95 today and tomorrow before they go up to $19.95 next week.

Andy: I’ve been thinking about this post for a while, and how I can comment on it without getting annoyed, and there’s just no way I can do it. On the one hand, I don’t really have a problem with people owning guns, I own an air rifle and have done for most of my life, I’ve shot targets with it and enjoyed that. I don’t really get why so many Americans think it would be such a tragedy if there were less guns in their country or stricter controls on who owned those guns when they are faced with mountains of evidence showing that less guns would mean less people getting killed in mass shootings. Nope, I told you, now I’m annoyed about something in a country thousands of miles away from me.

All that aside, there are certainly worse t-shirts out there with guns on them, this one isn’t too in your face and I do appreciate that.

Tragic Clothing founder Max Mitchell got in touch to let me know about his brand, and it’s pretty cool that someone who is just 18 managed to put all of this together himself. I wish that I’d had the motivation to do something like this when I was 18, rather than waiting until I was 26 to start Rigu, although of course it’s a bit easier to start a business now than it was even 10 years ago.

Of the designs I much prefer the graphics to the text, with the ‘gluttony’ shirt being part of a seven deadly sins collection. I get the concept behind it and it looks quite good in the store having the seven shirts in the same style, but is it something that I’m going to buy and wear on a regular basis as a standalone design? I’m not so sure, but it still makes for cool items in the shop and potentially a very cool photoshoot. The grahpic shirts are a lot more appealing to me though, and I would imagine to most of you guys too. I’m guessing that with them being at the top of the shop that they’re the newest designs, and that gives me hope that the next wave of releases will follow in a similar vein.

Jane Goodall isn’t that well known in the UK, I think people are vaguely aware of her, but she hasn’t achieved the same recognition as in the US, which is why I thought it was pretty strange to see a shirt with her on at Hirsute History. Then again, I’m sure she’s a big inspiration to a lot of people getting into science in the US so it’s pretty cool to see her celebrated in such a way.

Found a cool new company on Big Cartel called Small Batch. They seem to provide clean designs with a focus around comfort. They have 3 tees up now, but state they focus on bringing limited run apparel items from independent fashion designers. Pretty cool concept.

Andy: I can’t decide if this submitted post is written by someone completely unrelated to Small Batch, or if it’s someone from Small Batch trying to make it looks as if I wrote the post. Either way, pretty nice shirts.

The clothes are cool, that almost goes without saying when it comes to Akomplice, who dropped this latest collection yesterday, but it’s the lookbook concept and photographs that are blowing me away. They’ve taken their standard ‘cool guy on a white background’ photos that they usually take, and then pasted them all over Denver, and then taken cool photos of them. Really original stuff from AK. See the press release after the jump:[click to continue…]

I don’t really know how it’s possible that I miss releases like this when it’s the kind of shirt that I really enjoy, fun typework with positive phrases, what’s not to love? But somehow I did miss it, for more than two months, so sorry to Perception Apparel for being so slow on the uptake, and also to you guys for not getting to wear these lovely tees over the Summer. Shirts are still available and they’re a reasonable $22.50 a piece.

Sometimes I’m just really lame when it comes to posting about brands that I like, because Domestic Sanity got in touch at the start of August and I’m only just posting them now, poor show Andy-man!

As ever, I’m impressed with the design quality on show at dsanity, and I’m sure that the attractive model in her underwear isn’t clouding my judgement at all. Seriously though, everything in the unisex ‘Of Money and Man‘ collection looks great with some really wearable designs. I like the ‘Suburban Camouflage‘ collection too, but with it being for the ladies it’s a bit harder for me to get excited about it.

BÄAS Clothing was setup last November by three guys at Loughborough Uni that somehow found out about HYA via a local pizza place, a pizza place that I’ve never ordered from (but keep intending to), so maybe I’m more famous in the local area than I realised!

Lots of logo designs here, which as ever I feel is a bit of a barrier to entry for a brand since you need people to like the logo and name rather than just thinking “hey, that’s a cool design” but there are lots of popular logo-driven companies out there so I’m not one say that it is the wrong approach, it might just make life a bit harder at first. I do really like the shirts with the big designs on the back, I’d quite like to see them with the big design on the front (which the floral A design is as a crew, and it works really well) but that’s just my personal taste and there does seem to be a bit of a trend in the UK for a pocket placement print on the front and going big on the back, so I suspect that this is just one of those cases where the youngsters are moving with the times and I’m getting a bit traditional as I edge closer to 30.

I want to like No Mind Clothing, but there’s something in the back of my head telling me that unless this brand gets a bit more cohesive and cleans up the presentation that it’s not going to get a lot of traction and it’s not going to last very long, which is a pity because I always want a t-shirt company to succeed.

Individually, I’ve nothing against the designs, one about Breaking Bad, one defending Derrick Rose, and one about craft beer, but I don’t really understand why those three things are the launch items in a t-shirt shop, because if I go there liking the Breaking Bad shirt but want to add something else to my order, the other two aren’t necessarily going to be of interest to me, which doesn’t help on a business level. Still, it’s important that No Mind go after what they like and what they want to sell, when you’re just starting out and learning about the t-shirt world it’s good to not be 100% focused on the business aspects. Improving conversion rates can come along down the line.

Aside from my concerns about the spread of design inspiration it would be good to see some model photos, or even flat shots of the real tees. I know I bang that drum a lot, but everyone would prefer to see real shots of tees instead of mockups, it makes the shop look better and makes me more likely to want to buy something. Brands are doing themselves a disservice when they don’t present their goods in the best light.

I know that this post will be quite a hard pill for No Mind to swallow since it seems so negative, but the point isn’t to make them feel bad, it’s to help their brand improve and go on to bigger and better things, and hopefully next time we see them I won’t be able to think of any negative comments. If you’re digging any of the tees you can get 10% off at the moment with the coupon codeOLDENGLISH.

“How To Train Your Dragon” was one of those films that my girlfriend put on TV on a rainy Sunday afternoon that I expected I wouldn’t like, it was for kids after all, but I actually really enjoyed it, and if you have a chance to check it out there are certainly worse things to spend your afternoon doing.

WeLoveFine.com teamed up with Dreamworks to run a special design competition which resulted in the winning shirts you can see above, with the top tee by Karen Hallion being the grand prize winner. For her efforts Karen has won a trip to Los Angeles and a trip around the Dreamworks Animations Studios, which I think it’s fair to say is one of those prizes that money can’t buy.

With the tagline “Simple Design | Complex Mindset,” Cipher 48 strives to bring forth simple and sleek designs for both men and women to include in their wardrobe. Our minimal design pieces make bold statements that transcend the stereotypes of graphic printed wear. The simplicity of our products create a look that is able to outlast any trend.

Hollow Clothing are prepping for something interesting that will be released next week, but to kick off the party early with this new backpack and a classy embroidered tee in a pleasing colourway. The backpack is £18.99 and the tee is £12.99, which is really reasonable, they could easily get away with charging a few quid more but instead they reward loyal customers, bravo! Oh, and there’s only half the bag stock remaining so if you want one you’d better hop on board the Hollow train.